Martha Collinson was one of my favourite contestants on Great British Bake Off, so when I found her cookbook on BookXcess, I made an excuse to place an order. I was planning to try as many recipes as possible before writing this review, but one thing led to another and the book is currently in Singapore while I’m in Malaysia. So this is something like a part one, with a part two expected sometime in 2021.

What is Twist about?

Subtitled “Creative Ideas to Reinvent Your Baking”, Twist is a cookbook that teaches you not only basic baking recipes, but how to ‘twist’ them to create something fun and creative. The categories covered are:

• Little Cakes (Cupcakes, Madelines, Friands, and Muffins)
• Cakes (Vanilla and Chocolate cake)
• Biscuits (Macarons and Cookies)
• Bars and Brownies
• Sweet Dough (Doughnuts and things involving enriched dough)
• Pastry (Choux pastry, tarts, and eclairs)
• Desserts (Meringues, puddings, marshmallows, and more!)

As you can tell, it’s got a pretty wide range of sweet bakes inside. Even with the help of a friend, I’ve only managed to try to make the lemon curd (covered in the introduction), the vanilla and chocolate cakes, the brownies, and the cookies.

Trying out the Recipes

• 

• 

Vanilla Cake: I tried out the basic vanilla cake and the malted milk cake here. Both cakes were pretty easy to make and they tasted great – very moist and flavourful. The cakes were a hit with my family, and I was so happy to be able to make buttercream successfully for the first time.

Chocolate Cake: For the chocolate cake, my friend and I went straight into the ombre cake recipe. We messed up quite a bit as we were rushing about, but the end result still tasted good and it didn’t look too bad either!

Lemon Curd: The recipe for this was very easy to follow and the resulting curd was very tart. We made this to spread on bread but I think it may be a bit too tart for it – instead, I can imagine that this would be great as a cake filling (like vanilla and lemon cake?)

Brownies: I used the basic brownie recipe to create stuffed brownies and what came out of the oven were the most indulgent, fudgy brownies I had ever made. My friends who liked fudgy brownies loved this, but my family who prefers a low-sugar option preferred the vanilla cake.

Cookies: I used the basic cookie recipe and made three things: plain cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and cookies stuffed with Nutella or Cadbury Crunchie Spread. I had a bit of issue with timing (probably a result of my oven rather than the book) but overall, the cookies turned out great! My family liked the plain cookies and I liked the stuffed cookies.

I also did a batch of regular chocolate chip cookies for some of my colleagues and they were a hit! I managed to fix most of my oven issues that occurred during the first batch, so there came out great. I would highly recommend refrigerating the dough for a least a day if you can wait – it really does improve the overall cookie!

Overall Thoughts

There is a lot to like about this book. Apart from the range of recipes, I also appreciated how the book lay flat (something I didn’t realise was useful until I had this open while running back and forth between the buttercream and the jam), the introduction, which had a list of ingredients and equipment that would be handy for all the recipes, and most importantly, how the book starts with basic recipes of each item before introducing the more complicated versions. I used the basic version of the brownie and cookie recipe and added my own twist and it worked out pretty well!

I do feel a bit more confident to experiment with the recipes in this book, compared to recipes in other books, which you know, is the purpose of Twist. If you’re looking to build up your skill as a baker, I think this would be really helpful.